Conte’s Juventus storm back from 2-0 down to draw 3-3 at Napoli

One of the good things about a very tactical match is that the coaches are pressed for the reasons they made particular decisions at the post-match press conference.

Antonio Conte’s approach away to Napoli was very surprising. Having started the season with a 4-4-2 often called a 4-2-4 and more recently moved to a 4-1-4-1, he switched to a 3-5-2 system. Giorgio Chiellini tucked in, Marcelo Estigarribia played on the left, and Simone Pepe moved inside to the centre of midfield, with Claudio Marchisio suspended.

Walter Mazzarri, meanwhile, played his usual 3-4-3ish shape, though Juan Zuniga started rather than Andrea Dossena, and Edinson Cavani was injured so Goran Pandev played upfront. The front three switched around even more than usual, but one always made sure they dropped onto Andrea Pirlo and closed him down quickly.

With the coaches outlining very interesting reasoning for their decisions, this article will be in two parts – a larger first looking at the coaches’ explanations, then a smaller part looking at how and why Juventus managed to turn it around in the second half.

Conte: “We tried to mirror Napoli, as Christian Maggio makes the difference for them and I wanted him to go head-to-head with Estigarribia, who had an extraordinary game.

Conte’s openness about wanting to mirror Napoli is interesting. Presumably, since Juventus were 3-5-2ish and Napoli were 3-4-3, he means mirroring them with a back three and wing-backs, rather than in midfield. In basic terms, it’s quite unwise to try to beat an opponent at a particular style of football they excel at, and in the first half Napoli’s wing-backs were much more effective than Juventus’.

Estigarribia has seen little Serie A football, and when he has he hasn’t looked completely convincing, so it’s surprising Conte wanted to put him up against the man who he considered Juventus’ biggest threat. He doesn’t have many alternatives for that role, but perhaps Pepe could have played on the left and ex-Napoli star Michele Pazienza could have done a job in the centre.

Did the approach to stop Maggio work? Not really – Maggio set up the first from a set-piece with a header across the six-yard box for Marek Hamsik, contributed the second by closing down Andrea Pirlo with the ball falling to Pandev, and crossed for the the third, Pandev’s cool finish. Granted, the first goal was from a free-kick and therefore not about formations and positioning in open play, and the second was an accidental assist that came from pressing, but you can’t say that Juve successfully nullified Maggio – although later they attacked him brilliantly.

Napoli defence v Juventus attack:

Conte: “We had prepared a match with Mirko Vucinic against Salvatore Aronica and Alessandro Matri on Paolo Cannavaro. We didn’t do well in the first half, as we often hesitated in giving them service. After the break the two strikers had much more of an impact.”

The positioning here caused Napoli problems at the back. Ordinarily in 3 v 2 you’d want the central player, Cannavaro, sweeping up behind two others, Aronica and Hugo Campagnaro. But it meant that Campagnaro was the free man and spent the game leaving his zone and moving to the left of the pitch. Watch Juve’s first goal and you’ll find Campagnaro towards the left, leaving a huge amount of space for Matri. The second is almost identical, but more exaggerated and with Estigarribia free. It’s ironic that the one Napoli centre-back not mentioned by Conte was the only one mentioned by Mazzarri…

Mazzarri: “When Hugo Campagnaro is sharp, he won’t let anything past, but when tired you can make silly mistakes.”

Pepe

Conte: “Pepe is a very intelligent player tactically and had a little trouble finding his position in the middle, but then became devastating.”

Pepe: “I’m not a narrow midfielder, but I was able to go about my duties thanks to my teammates. I felt at ease and enjoyed myself when I found space, also because Arturo Vidal and Andrea Pirlo protected me and granted me the freedom to go forward.”

Pepe, who grabbed the equaliser, has become the versatile workman that Juventus have always been great at creating. In the mould of Moreno Torricelli, Angelo Di Livio, Alessandro Birindelli, Gianluca Zambrotta and Gianluca Pessotto, Pepe is a man for all seasons and all positions and his current goalscoring form (three goals in three for the first time in his career) underlines his contribution.

Tiredness

Conte: “It was a very difficult start and Napoli immediately played at a high tempo, but we seemed almost as if we were waiting for them to tire themselves out.”

Mazzarri: “We had a spectacular first half while our strength held out, but unfortunately we paid the price for the many fixtures. When the games notch up, you pay for it… We had a similar problem against Manchester City, as we knew we were facing a top club and lost sharpness due to fatigue, so the fear of not getting the points sets in…I always tell my players we can’t go at 1,000mph all the time, but it’s one thing to say and another to do. We must learn how to speed up at the right moment, otherwise we use up all our energy. We were on the ropes in the second half, as our legs started to give way…I could see we lost our stamina after the break.”

The second half line-ups

It’s fascinating that Mazzarri knew his side was vulnerable late on when fatigue set in, and Conte thought Napoli would tire too, which is probably why he didn’t make any substitutions until the game was at 3-3.

Mazzarri isn’t blessed with the biggest squad, but his failure to rotate has been particularly obvious this season, probably not sustainable in the Champions League as well as the league. Last season Napoli were kings of the late winner, now opposition managers see them as vulnerable in the closing stages.

Part 2- the crucial change

At 2-0 down, it was amazing that Conte emerged for the second half with the same XI that contested the first, but he did make a crucial change.

Estigarribia was pushed higher up the pitch to become more like a left-winger and forcing back Maggio back to more like a right-back (a move that clearly benefited Juventus, both in basic territorial terms and because that puts Estigarribia into a position he’s more comfortable in, and Maggio into a position he’s less comfortable in).

Lichsteiner wasn’t a force in the second half, but Chiellini was a cross between a left-sided centre-back and an attacking left-back, tucking in narrow without the ball but pushing on down the flank. All three Juventus goals were scored from a left-of-centre position, and Chiellini had another great chance in the 78th minute from that side of the pitch.

It took some key position changes, but eventually Conte’s initial focus on the left side of the pitch worked. They needed to be more aggressive though – it wasn’t about stopping Maggio playing, it was about attacking him.

27 Responses to “ Conte’s Juventus storm back from 2-0 down to draw 3-3 at Napoli ”

blahblah on November 30, 2011 at 5:02 pm

i love this year exciting Juventus

good to see ZM covers it

Connor on November 30, 2011 at 5:25 pm

I think Man City should of played a similar formation against Napoli, with 3 centre backs (Lescott,Kompany&Richards) with Milner on the left wing attacking against Maggio.

nitram on November 30, 2011 at 5:30 pm

It would be a good idea but I believe Kolarov would be a better choice for the left wing, as he has played this position for Lazio in the past if I recall correctly, and he is both a threat offensively and good defensively. Maybe Milner could be played right, but even there Zabaleta might be a better choice.

nitram on November 30, 2011 at 5:27 pm

I’m really surprised to read coach’s quotes that interesting tactically. I don’t know if it’s usual in other countries, but in France I don’t think I have ever heard a coach explain his tactics after a game. All post-game interviews are always: “We wanted to defend well and benefit from the opportunities we got”. I think this has a link with the fact that Ligue 1 is really poor tactically, as well as our national team has been ever since the 2002 fiasco.

About the game, you have to wonder if playing in a 3-5-2 formation was such a good idea, as the second half 4-3-3-ish formation worked much better offensively. But Juventus proves to be the most likley team to win this year Serie A, having performed well against every direct opponent (Inter, Napoli…).

Such a vast amount of post-game tactical observations by the coaches is pretty unusual for a very tactical league like Serie A as well, mainly because the Italian public is more interested in highlights, transfers and referee’s mistakes.
But it looks like it’s getting slowly better.

Not much tactical discussion goes on in England. After all, there is only so much that can be made of endless 4-4-2s vs 4-4-2s…XD

sidjeen on December 2, 2011 at 11:28 am

i think its all the media’s fault the picture of premier league matches that is shown on tv has only a player with a ball with one or two defenders trying to stop him most of the time you are only guessing whats going on in other areas of the pitch and although its exciting to suddenly realize that a through ball has found the striker in a promising position i think it would be more interesting to have a view of the full pitch to actually see the striker make that run. ok i realize that showing the whole pitch is not possible on tv but a bit more detail will be interesting in la liga the cameras are a bit away from the field and you can see the formations at play and the runs,positioning and vision of different players.

Clarence on November 30, 2011 at 5:36 pm

Juventus should use their usual formation as 4-1-4-1/4-3-3 at the first space

kane prior on November 30, 2011 at 6:23 pm

Juventus (first half) – Probably the wrong choice of formation in hind sight but you could see what they were trying to do. The problem with there three man defense was there wasnt anyone who could bring the ball out of defense and into midfield. The man who was left free was Barzagli, but he isnt that sort of player, so he struggled to do anything with the ball in possession. This was a clear idea of Napoli,as hamsik looked to close down Pirlo instead (a good strategy)

Licksteiner struggled for the first time in a match,as he finally came up against a direct opponent (Inter and Lazio should take notice) in Zuniga. Playing estigarribia at LWB didnt work very well either as magio constantly got the better of him, exposing his defensive weakness. So defensively Juventus looked weaker.

In midfield, Pirlo was closed down well by Hamsik (again Inter and Lazio should take note) and struggled to get Juventus going, this is why Juventus needed a CB to move into midfield, to give hamisk another threat, but this didnt happen. Vidal struggled to get forward, but did press Gargano well, stoping him getting the ball forward to his team mates. Pepe did a similar job on Inler, stopping napoli getting the ball forward through the centre, but there wingbacks gave them an easy outball, and this pressure in the end didnt work. Pepe also plainly isnt the player to create attacks through the middle, he tried a few dribbles but didnt get anywhere, and his passing isnt good enough to break down napolis defense. A good trait though (and his goal showed this) was that he got into good attacking positions off the ball, and lost the attentions of inler well. To say whether his game in the middle was a success is hard to say, on the ball he struggled (passing) but off the ball he was great (pressing, good movement forward).

Matri and vucinic did a good job against a 3 man defense. Vucinic (moved to the right) gave aronica problems throughout, with his movement and pace. Matri did a similar job on cannavaro, dragging him out of position and winning battles in the air. But a lack of support and midfield dominance meant Juventus couldnt exploit this. Campagnarro had a poor game,he was the free man in defense, but (like puyol against milan) failed to make it count, he could have moved into midfield but rarely did, instead trying to help out against Juventus front two, but this left spaces to exploit and was a bad idea.

Overall, Juventus first half was poor, they struggled in midfield and couldnt really create chances, with there only free player Barzagli. Pirlo and Lich were contained well which really made Juventus struggle.

Mike P on November 30, 2011 at 6:27 pm

This match would’ve been a perfect opportunity for Conte to revert to his 4-4-2/4-2-4 system.
- Four at the back to give a spare man against Napoli’s three up front, with the fullbacks narrowing when Lavezzi and Hamsik came inside.
- Four against four in midfield, with Estigarribia and Pepe powering on to push Maggio and Zuniga back and negate their attacking threat.
- Then you’d have 2 v 3 up front, giving Napoli a spare man. If Matri and Vucinic started centrally but drifted wide, not only would this force Campagnaro and Aronica wider than they’d like, it would also mean that the spare man would’ve been Cannavaro, who is not the best on the ball. This would’ve been better than leaving Campagnaro to maraude forward as he pleased, as he’s shown before (and ZM has mentioned this time and again) that he’s dangerous in such situations.

Admittedly Juve have been much better in a 4-1-4-1 system than they were at the start of the season in the 4-4-2/4-2-4, but you can’t just play the same system all the time. So credit where it’s due to Conte for changing it up, both from kick-off and in the second half once he noticed it wasn’t working. Can’t imagine too many Premier League managers doing the same.

I think Conte got the formation right. Juventus had a decent start (three shots in 7 minutes), then a poor game from the missed penalty till the break, with many individual mistakes that Napoli managed to exploit well (Pirlo’s penalty foul on Lavezzi and lost ball before Pandev’s first attempt, Bonucci’s “assist” to Hamsik and judgement mistake before Napoli’s third). And then a great second half.

Napoli, on the other hand, were after all not very dangerous (although they scored three times, I know), at least not in their usual ways: counterattack, crosses from the wings. Their first shot with Juventus defence in position came at the 82nd minute, and it was just a poor 30 meters Inler’s effort.

In short, Juve scored 3 through their game, Napoli didn’t.

kaneprior on November 30, 2011 at 8:05 pm

Juventus (second half) – Looked much better after the break. Bonnucci and barzagli took care of Pandev easily, and also kept an eye on lavezzi. But the best move was moving chiellini back to LB, where for the first time he really impressed me there. He stormed up the pitch to great fashion, taking advantage of lavezzi not tracking back and playing quite centrally. He became one on Juventus’s best players, combining with estigarribia excellently.

That was the other big change. moving estigarribia forward so he could push maggio back. This had the benefit of stopping Napoli’s biggest threat, and also creating Juventus’s biggest threat in Estigarribia and Chiellini. These two also gave Juventus a obvious outball which allowed them to keep possession much easier. This meant Pepe in particular could get forward more, which lead to his equalizing goal. The forward twos movement also started to get more support and this meant Napoli started to be opened up much easier.

As Zm mention, the obvious decline in stamina in Napolis team also lead to Juventus getting back into the game. Lavezzi looked completely drained and couldnt occupy Chiellini, Inler struggled to keep up with Pepe and the back thee stopped tracking Vucinic and Matri. However, the big anomaly in this was Hamsik, who did exceptionally well to keep pressing Pirlo till the end, this was important and meant Juventus couldnt completely dominate Napoli at the end.

Just because managers in the premiership do not often go into too much detail when talking to the press about tactics, it does not mean that they are less tactically intelligent away from the press, when training and coaching their teams. Napoli offer a very different threat to most of our opponents this season, and so its hardly giving away trade secrets to describe our attempts to nullify and beat them.

tony on December 1, 2011 at 2:26 am

Fascinating stuff, cheers.

Love the quotes

SimplyThePest on December 1, 2011 at 5:29 am

ZM, enjoy the analyses, mate, great stuff.

Was wondering if you’d consider doing reviews here and there of great matches of the past, i.e. old European Cup finals, classic matches from various leagues, etc. I know access to that stuff can be sketchy at best, just thought it might be a cool addition to what is already a great site.

Really enjoyed the two part narrative structure of the piece. Getting insight into Conte’s and Mazzarri thinking along side the tactical analysis creates a terrific richness.

Napoli’s small squad and limited depth does seem to be a real issue for them. It’s a noticeable issue. Reminds me a bit of last season’s wonderful Villareal squad in that regard. Two attractive sides of limited scope in terms of depth.

Avitohol on December 1, 2011 at 8:34 pm

Very good analysis Zonal Marking, I really think that this Juventus under Conte is on of the most exciting team to watch and I will be very happy if you continue to review their matches. I believe that this year the level of football in Italy has increased dramatically and the race for the title and the Champions league spots will be ferocious. 4-3-3 (or 4-1-4-1) is the way to go for Juve i feel- Pirlo, Marchisio and Vidal form a very balanced midfield. The problem is that if one of them is injured (especially Pirlo) Juve lacks class players who can substitute them well. Keep up the good work!!!

Fuad on December 2, 2011 at 12:47 pm

Hopefully the rest of Europe will respect Serie A once again. Channel 4’s coverage of Serie A in the late 90s/early 00s is what got me into domestic footie in the first place, well before the premier league…

Avitohol on December 2, 2011 at 3:29 pm

True in the late 90s/early 00s there were so many classy players in Seria A- Del Piero, Zidane, Totti Vieri, Veron, Crepso and many others all in their prime… Even old Baggio was joy to behold. And there were at lesat 5-6 teams who were always in the battle for the title. Serie A was the first competition that I was interested in.